Prize in the Box!

This idea is pretty hot, I think. I got it from some back and forth during the Sept GEM session we had last week. In the past, I have done a Picture of the Day in my announcements. Today as I was prepping my future announcements, a light bulb went off. Maybe it wouldn’t always have to be a picture. “What about a video, or an animoto, or a youTube, or other cool things,” I said to myself. And that is when I thought, “A Prize in the Box” — like in a box Cracker Jacks. Here is how I explained it to my class on the discussion board. Notice my student’s response. 🙂

4 responses to “Prize in the Box!”

Great idea! I am thinking about doing something like this on Wed-Sat of my classes since with the new DB requirments most students are logging on Sun-Tue. Are you getting increased participation with this? Do they like the pictures? My main concern is that some of my students feel they have too much to do and look at already. What kind of feedback have you had from the Overwhelmed?

Thanks for the feedback Pete. Yes, it is always a concern that we don’t overwhelm students. Absolutely a key issue when innovating.

Here’s what I’ve learned:

I’ve done just a Picture of the Day for probably 9 terms. It is so low impact that nobody complains at all.

The difference with Prize in the Box is that I am adding some low impact rich media things into the mix. I am trying to keep them short and fun.

In seminars for the past few terms (toward the later seminars in the term and I do an extra one in Unit 10), I have demo’ed (provided links) some of the rich media. The response is overwhelmingly positive from seminar attendees.

The most important thing that I do is make sure that they know this isn’t required in any way shape or form for the class. I also teach new IT students so showing new technology to them is a natural fit.

But the theory behind this is simple. I want students to log in. SO… it could be an announcement series that simply had an inspirational quote every day. Or a photo.

I do a Daily Posting(on the DB) in my classes, some days it is a Study Tip, Tech Tip, Solution, or Problems for them to try. I started it 1.5 terms ago and my students love it! Even if they don’t do the problems or anything, it lets them know that I am there regularly.